Still holding Ren’s hand, Peruan dragged the bundle over. He was able to find the sweet bean jelly and tea leaves Tom had discovered without much difficulty. In truth, found was not quite the right word. The things inside the bundle had been scattered in complete disorder. They were simply rolling around, mixed in with the clothes in the bundle.
He was aware that secretly looking through someone else’s belongings like a thief was rude, but he had become curious about everything Ren owned.
Instead of rummaging through the baggage, Peruan only looked with his eyes at what had been disturbed while they searched for the medicine. Then, holding the sweet bean jelly, he turned it this way and that under the magic lamp.
At a glance, it was only a snack.
Even when he had chewed it, he had not thought it was medicine. It had merely been cheap sweet bean jelly with a slightly bitter taste mixed in. Most likely, even if a physician had been here, he would not have noticed that this was medicine.
...Had he wanted to hide it that badly?
He had been desperate.
And what he had hidden so desperately.
He had revealed to him.
Peruan covered his mouth. A heavy emotion settled deep in his lower abdomen.
His gaze, which had been carefully examining the baggage, brushed past the small odds and ends and returned to the tea leaves.
Those probably are not simple tea leaves either.
Peruan gathered the sweet bean jelly and tea leaves and tucked them into a pouch. It was so he could take care of Ren if he became critical again. Peruan had been looking at the baggage with regretful eyes when a mumbling sound made him turn his head in a hurry.
Ren was faintly frowning.
“Are you coming to?”
He carefully tightened his hold on Ren’s hand.
Ren opened his eyes blankly and looked at Peruan. His pupils, with no light entering them, were like a doll’s.
What if something had gone wrong because he had given him the medicine too late?
Fortunately, however, after Ren closed and opened his trembling eyelids several times, life began to return to his eyes. Like a soul entering a doll, the pupils now filled with light shone like the Milky Way.
“The light is dazzling.”
“What kind of... bullshit is that?”
His voice cracked harshly. Ren tried to touch his throat, then saw Peruan’s hand being pulled along when he lifted his own and widened his eyes. When he tried to move his upper body, Peruan pressed his shoulder down with a careful hand.
“Rest a little longer. You passed out.”
“...”
Ren mumbled, then shut his mouth.
“My you. Is there something you want to say?”
Heat seeped into Peruan’s voice.
He had not thought Ren would truly go wrong. Even so, for an instant, Peruan had felt fear.
And when he saw Ren’s eyes open, what he felt was deep relief and joy.
Controlling the heart that seemed ready to overflow, Peruan made himself a gentle, harmless smile.
“Why are you smiling like that?”
Ren asked, uneasy.
“Hmm? What was my smile like?”
Peruan leaned his face closer instead. Ren shoved that face away, disgusted, saying forget it.
The boy who had woken was this light and cheerful.
As if he had forgotten all the pain and suffering from before.
Clear and clean. The only trace of illness was his deathly pale face.
“Are you calm, or are you pretending to be calm?”
He was curious. Had Ren become calm because he was too used to it, or was he trying to become calm?
“...What are you talking about?”
“...Never mind.”
Peruan, who had started to speak, swallowed his words.
He wanted to tear through every part of Ren and know it all. Yet, ironically, a part of him also wanted to know only the version Ren chose to show him.
“You, my you. What were you trying to say?”
“...Your hand.”
“My hand?”
His mumbling mouth spat out a single word.
Peruan, not understanding, asked again.
“...I said thank you for holding it!”
His voice burst out in an embarrassed shout, carrying a shyness he had not managed to hide.
Peruan’s startled, widely opened pupils suddenly narrowed, and his eyes filled densely with laughter. His face flushed. A heavy emotion slowly pressed down on his lower belly.
“As expected, you are far too lovely. My you, my bird. My master, whom I want to serve forever.”
“Please stop calling me that!”
“My fate.”
Frail and pitiful.
Perhaps that was fortunate.
Peruan stared silently at Ren.
If he had been even a little healthier, Peruan might not have been able to endure his own temperament and might have swallowed him whole.
He reached out and carefully stroked Ren’s cheek. Ren made it obvious he disliked it, but he did not turn his head away. Peruan could tell he was enduring it to some extent because Peruan had helped him.
This is not good.
Does he do this with others too?
But he did not want to press him. When Tom came back, he would tell him to look into it.
Peruan smiled, his eyes curving fully. The deeper his smile grew, the more dubious Ren’s expression became.
“Ah... Did I, uh. Make some kind of mistake...”
“No. Unless being too lovely counts as a mistake...”
“How did you find the medicine? Oh! My things!”
Ren awkwardly changed the subject.
There were only so many times he could get annoyed at the constant flirting. When a handsome young man kept saying the same thing with a serious face, Ren felt as if he might become a little embarrassed.
When he moved, the chains clattered.
Looking at Ren’s delighted expression when he found his belongings, Peruan wanted to break those chains right away, but he barely suppressed the urge. If he broke them now, attention would focus on them, and quietly getting Ren out might become difficult. Peruan had decided to quietly evacuate Ren before rescuing the others and causing a disturbance. So he had to endure it. He had to endure those thick chains scraping «N.o.v.e.l.i.g.h.t» that delicate skin.
He is so bright.
His reaction was different from those dragged into a place like this.
Usually, at first, they denied the fact that they had been captured and brought to this terrible place. After time passed and they gradually adapted, the emotion they felt was either resignation or despair. Occasionally, there were people who held on to hope and searched for an escape route or a savior, but in truth, such things never happened. In the end, this slave market was a place where even those who screamed and struggled to cling to their sanity threw their emotions away in order to survive. That was how those dragged here managed to keep their minds intact, at least barely.
The road that brought him here could not possibly have been easy.
Peruan had luckily saved him.
But despair, resignation, resentment, and agony must have tried to swallow the boy at every moment.
And yet, from Ren, he did not feel those dark emotions.
Hadn’t they met in the hallway because he had escaped on his own?
Those living eyes, glaring at him while huffing with fury.
That prickling gaze, sharp enough to sting.
Even if Peruan had not saved him, he would have saved himself. Somehow. His soul would have remained firm.
Perhaps the lucky one was not Ren, but Peruan.
Because he had been given the chance to save him and remain by his side.
“As expected, it is fate.”
Ren had been rummaging through his bag for a while, and after grasping the thing he had been looking for, he looked at Peruan.
His scalp had been itching, and apparently it was because Peruan had been staring at him the whole time.
Ren looked at him sullenly.
At this point, he had no choice but to ask.
“What do you keep calling fate?”
“I fell for your angelic appearance, but the nobility of your soul wrapped itself around me.”
Ren blinked at him, then gave a hollow little laugh.
“What are you even saying? Seriously.”
He could not understand a single thing the man was saying.
‘A soul, huh.’
Kirky had said his soul was clear too. So had the old apothecary.
Could they see souls? How did they look?
Ren stared piercingly at Peruan, but all he received was an assault of winks, and he could not figure out what the man’s soul was like. He could only be certain it was probably a little strange.
“What are you holding in your hand? My you.”
“Ah, this is...”
What Ren held was the necklace the old apothecary had given him, and the gift Coco had pressed into his hand before leaving.
‘They actually survived. I thought for sure they’d been stolen. Did they not search my things?’
It was not exactly a secret, but explaining every detail was embarrassing.
As he hesitated for a moment, wondering how to explain, the people below, who were in the middle of their passionate performance, entered his sight.
The stage was drenched in blood. It was vivid enough to be seen clearly even from here. The people sprawled there as if they were truly dead felt eerie.
“Why are they wearing masks while doing this?”
“Because they represent universals, rather than individual humans.”
Peruan glanced at the stage. The masked person who had played the daughter begging him to spare her child earlier was collapsed on the floor. A puddle of blood had gathered beneath her.
That is some fine staging.
The play was racing toward its climax as they formed groups, crossed swords, and fought the other villagers with blades. Shouts, screams, and solemn vows rapidly crossed over one another. The guests seemed to have become fully absorbed in the play and no longer made even the sound of breathing.
“Hmm. In other words, they represent certain roles. Not ‘Peruan’ as a complex individual human, but the ‘son’ as a member of a family. The individual person called ‘Peruan’ has no great meaning in this play. What matters is the fact that he is the ‘son’ of a certain house. It makes it easier for anyone qualified as a ‘son’ to immerse himself.”
“Ahh.”
Ren nodded as if he understood.
“Is your condition all right?”
Despite all his effort to ask naturally, Peruan’s throat ended up choking. Looking at Peruan, who seemed rather flustered, Ren gazed at him with unreadable eyes. As if captured by those clear pale-green pupils, Peruan could not move an inch.
It really did feel like he had been caught in a trap.
